During the game yesterday especially in the first half there were a number of "silly fouls" and "stupid Yellow Cards" by Utd players. Instead of finding myself getting annoyed with Fellani, Rooney or Evans I understood what they were doing and was sad that we could not/would not match their aggression. The Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin once said that âThe urge to destroy is also a creative urgeâ. I doubt he was talking about football but it's a good point, at times there is a need to disrupt the flow and creative play of the opposition in years gone by there have been players who have been admired for such "negative" play Claude Makalele being the stand out performer in this dark art of disruption and negativity. Manchester United away was the fixture, technical ability was needed according to our manager, sticking a ****ing boot in was needed according to me. If we are to halt this run of form then the nailed on yellow card that is Lucas is needed and the physicality of Can is also required, the man just looks a force without kicking a ball. The card count was 4-3 to Utd but look at the type of fouls we picked up cards for, desperation from Allen and Gerrard and the usual stupidity from Balotelli, the Utd cards came at key times stopping a run or just breaking up our attacking play. We need to be tougher, more aggressive. I'm not suggesting we go flying into tackles and get players sent off but just that we compete in tough games. It's a simple part of football and one of the key parts of the game that we are getting wrong.
Agreed. We don't have any nasty players in the team. Lucas can do this, and Allen is quite tactical in his fouling as well. But the rest are pansies. Henderson and Gerrard don't have it in them. Our central midfield is so weak.
Allens yellow was actually a good one. Shame he didn't do it earlier when Valencia beat him the first time but he learned and one Valencia knocked it past he wasn't letting the man get through the 2nd time. There as so many examples where teams break on is and instead of fouling in their half and taking a yellow players let them go and just creates a more dangerous attack. Sometimes players don't seem to have game intelligence and aren't abke to take one for the team.
the gerrard booking was just to even the score. it was NEVER a card Balotelli was annoyed at his useless partner. Basically LFc are a bunch of pusses.
It's all to do with personnel. I was talking about Chelsea on another thread. In addition to what I said about them there and the players they've bought recently, they have brought in tough players. Think of the names... Costa, Fabregas, Drogba, Hazard all tough batards who are also skilled in the dark arts of simulation, diving and general mischievousness. Add these players to the likes of Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Matic, Ivanovic, Ramires, Schurrle and you have a team who are capable of roughing up the opposition and knocking them around OR of making the opposition look like thugs with small, slight players like Oscar, Willian, Felipe Luis (and Costa who is neither small nor slight but an expert at doing this when necessary). To bring in another philosopher, Albert Camus said that 'Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe to football'. Teams like Chelsea and managers like Mourinho aren't afraid to exploit ambiguities around what is moral and what is immoral in the game. There's interesting psychology in this since football and sport in general is as much a head game as it is a physical one. So fouling, diving, a little bit of gamesmanship aren't just 'silly fouls' but a strategy aimed at disrupting the opposition and putting them off their game leading to frustration, a sense that everything is going against them and demoralisation. Crucially it can shift momentum in games. No better example of the importance of momentum and a feeling of going forward than what happened to us yesterday. This attitude is clearly part of the coaching manual today and I'm sure that 'tactical fouling' or whatever you want to dress it up as is practiced on the training ground and implemented by some coaches and managers as part of their philosophy as much as Brendan does with his dominate through possession and passing attitude. Some of our players need to toughen up, or we need to bring in a couple who can lend that physical edge and fearful presence. This comes back to personnel, we have so many of the same kind of player in all positions. We have multiple centre backs, none of whom are very commanding or can control the area well. We have multiple strikers, none of whom have very good movement or a clear eye for goal. We have loads of 'technical' attacking midfielders, most of whom get pushed around and aren't delivering potent enough balls to feed the strikers. We have two very average goal keepers who both get the shakes. We have defensive midfielders who aren't tough, who won't 'get stuck in' and have terrible positional awareness leaving the defence exposed. Compare and contrast that to Chelsea, a team whose recruitment policy has brought in players of diverse styles, skills, characters and attitudes but who have all been forged into an extremely solid unit and play as one. That's how you get success in the game today, look at all the top teams who regularly win the biggest competitions in Europe, they're multi-faceted and highly resourceful.
the difference between us and cheslea is we'll let a team break from their own 6 yard box and score on us while cheslea will take the guy down every time. they won't leave the same man in the position either... they will take 5/6 bookings no problem and rarely have a brain fart like ivanovic did v utd. the real issue is rodgers is a midget who is intimidated by big players so he buys midgets. (not being serious)
Had he done it the first time, would they have scored from the second one...? What annoyed me with the first was Allen and Moreno (?) were closing Valencia down but after he nut megged Allen they both gave the impression of "ah well, he's beat me" and didn't bust a gut to track back, instead they just jogged towards the middle
Good post, I agree. Chelsea are very good at this as you say, If you want a battle they are all big lads and are up for it, if that doesn't work they'll cheat and dive anything to get the points. We need to be tougher and more clever.
It wasn't moreno he was the 3rd Man just joining. I think it was Henderson but not sure myself but someone that clearly isn't a full back as you say they should have at least tried to run back after Valencia kicked it. Almost like they knew couldn't keep up with the pace so didn't bither
Not winning the ball is poor but the bigger problem (for me) was the amount of space that Valencia had to run into. The gap between Moreno and Lovren is criminal - Lovren is such a poor defender at the best of times but his confidence is completely shot.
The Gerrard yellow card summed up your midfield effort for me. Yellow card or not, he was definitely trying to hold RVP back to break up our attack and stop it becoming dangerous. But he bounced off him like a helium balloon full of feathers, and RVP just carried on regardless. And it was RVP for ****'s sake, not Fellaini. RVP who would probably get injured if hit by an actual balloon full of feathers. If the midfield can't even commit tactical fouls properly, then something is very wrong.
Gerrard simply isn't that player - his reputation is taking a battering because there is some fool who think he's a DM/holding midfielder. It has never been his position, and he's never excelled as a CM. His best performances have come on the RW or AM.
it was lallana and allen in left back area and moreno was trotting back like he was glen jonhson... #hand in all 3 goals... if he'd stayed on that is
That amount of space was the system, not individuals. It was criminal regardless though and as someone rightly said above, Allen should have taken his yellow card then. Whilst we're on the LB area, anyone see Shearer's analysis on MOTD2? He said LVG focuses on the opponents weakness and attacks it before showing video evidence of yesterday games to prove how he did it. He focused on our LB area highlighting how much space there was adding that LVG would have picked up on this from previous games. It was all decent enough bar one very damaging point he failed to spot; we played a different system to the rest of the season! How could LVG have planned to exploit that space in that way when we hadn't played that system since LVG arrived in this country
yet the gaps was still there #explain that...... the reality was valencia and young got joy all day... the first goal was from no full back, dm spreading like a 2 dollar whore and ball watchers the second actually came form left and we were piss poor in the box and the third was a direct result of NOBODY covering toure running forward well into oppositions half. lovern the ****ed up his clearance well ok then... alan shearer is a dimwit and utd were not led by a tactical genius after all!
That's if the LB is out of position. In terms of a back line, the defenders should be close together to protect the space and ensure no runners run through. Things like this should be simple and basic to an amateur defender let alone a professional. We played a 3-5-2 - when we're defending, the full backs then drop deeper to form a back 5.
